


Vermillion - Bounty Hunting in the Pokémon World

by Angel2357



Category: Pokemon - Fandom
Genre: Original Character(s), Original Pokemon Region, Pokemon, Pokemon Battles, Shadow Pokemon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-15 19:20:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29069445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angel2357/pseuds/Angel2357
Summary: An experienced bounty hunter in Echo City, taking down dangerous criminals in do-or-die Pokémon battles.
Kudos: 3





	Vermillion - Bounty Hunting in the Pokémon World

The moon's comfortable blanket of the night rolls over Echo City, keeping the streets dead quiet. Even the quietest of Pokémon would not dare prowl around at such a time. 

The skyscraper at the center of the city stands tall above all else, the faded paint spelling the words "Devon Co. HQ" out of spite for the passage of time, and lack of maintenance. And within, not a soul. 

Not a one associated with Devon, that is. A multitude of unconscious grunts and thugs lay unconscious or asleep, bound by iron-like webbing, strewn all over each floor after their failed raid. The Pokéballs each of them have are similarly covered in silk, to prevent them from opening. A few of the more stubborn ones had the button destroyed without touching the shell, rendering the Pokémon unable to exit even then until rudimentary repairs. 

_Surely,_ thinks the figure nigh-on sliding up the stairs, black trenchcoat billowing gently, _the Enforcers will cover those._

She listens attentively to the earpiece underneath her long, greasy, bright red hair, waiting for any updates. None come, and so she knows: her mark's on the next floor, still.  
  
_...Though to be fair, he's not exactly sneaky._  
  
The scraping of rock on steel rings throughout the top floor and the one below, as a Rhyperior attempts to break into a vault that refuses to give up its secrets--in a timely manner. The burly, cueball-headed man standing a few feet clear crosses his arms in irritation, incapable of hearing Vermillion over the terrible din. She sneaks to the other end of the room, clutching a Pokéball in one hand and a small, black device in her hand; rectangular, with rounded corners and a screen on the front. Her forearm presses against the speaker, muting the little chime as it starts up, and the clicking sounds of the camera function being activated. She points it carefully, frames it just fine... and with a press, she secures evidence of--  
  
"I heard that!" The man suddenly swings around in response, arm pointing accusatorily; the Rhyperior drops its attention on the vault and wheels around, charging energy in its mouth. Vermillion can do nothing more than act like a deer in the headlights.  
  
The night is momentarily illuminated as a Hyper Beam tears its way out of the skyscraper, leaving half of the top floor in ruins.

The dust settles, and Vermillion drops down, escaping the attack with no more damage than a scorched scarf. "Bull Chargley, I presume." The man scoffs.  
  
"Another half-baked Enforcer after me, then?"  
  
"I'm insulted." With a flourish, she brings up a Pokéball and holds it over her face, hiding the lower half, leaving only her red eyes to glare a hole through him. "I'm much more dangerous than a pig in uniform."  
  
"Then prove it." He stomps down, and Rhyperior suddenly lunges forward with unnatural speed, stopping just short and digging its feet into the ground along with a twist of its hips; the drill comes out, unmoving, but aimed directly at her face, cutting through the air.  
  
Then, it simply stops.  
  
Not for lack of trying, mind. The beast is as confused as the man is, and yet the hunter remains unmoved as she reaches into a pocket and scatters sand into the air. And the grains seemingly hover in the air.  
  
"Sticky Web."  
  
The razor-thin ironsilk comes into view only after a few moments of focusing, a focus then broken by a large, red, metallic insect making its way from beneath the rubble. "Not that Scizor can usually use web this strong. The point I'm making is, you need to take me seriously or I'll run circles around you."  
  
His anger peaks. " _Drill Run!!_ " The drill starts up, suddenly tearing apart and gathering up all the silk, mulching it to a paste. "You want serious?! _I'll show you serious! Don't mess with me!!_ " The arm launches forward again, with all the fury in the world. Vermillion takes a step back, her position quickly taken by Scizor, whose bludgeon quickly deflects the drill, and its torso tanks the second. Each one leaves a scrape on its otherwise immaculate carapace, though not deep enough to stop it from attacking; it dredges up a large ball of ironsilk within its pincer and opens wide, pushing it right up against its opponent's chest and blasting it like a cannon, hard enough to send it sliding backwards and buying some space.  
  
"I'll drill my way through your puny insect if I have to, you little whelp!" The two Pokémon dash at each other once more, Rhyperior trying to cause as much damage as possible while Scizor takes a defensive approach, parrying and deflecting attacks while trying to slow it down with its web.  
  
"If you say so. I won't bother." Vermillion clutches her device once more and breaks into a run, crouching around the battle and heading straight for Bull. A pair of metallic prongs stick out of the top of the device, and electricity runs between them.  
  
"Don't mess with me, you punk!" Bull slams a Pokéball into the ground, releasing a Magmortar with its left arm already pouring flame. " _You've just left your hiding spot, behind your only Pokémon!_ " The cannon is aimed at the incoming hunter, releasing a fierce Fire Blast directly at her-  
  
One moment too late, Bull remembers she was holding a Pokéball that Scizor _didn't_ come out of. As if on cue, the flaming projectile is scattered about by a thin blast of water, which slams directly into Magmortar's arm; with a curt explosion sound, it recoils and clutches its arm with the other one, pained.  
  
"I'd recommend not firing like that." Her Inteleon confidently blows a stream of vapor away from the tip of its finger. "The pressure from the steam is just gonna make things worse." Its wing-fins spread in a menacing show of superiority, and Bull grinds his teeth.  
  
"Do you really think that I, _Bull 'Brick Break' Chargley_ \--  
  
\--wouldn't know the dangers of standing around and gloating?!"  
  
Her battle instincts suddenly kick back on and she spins her head, just in time to see Scizor slowly pushing a boulder off itself... and a gigantic, rocky arm sweeping around, smashing into her and Inteleon, flinging them backwards and onto the ground with a grisly _crunch_.  
  
She props herself up with her other arm, enduring the man's raucous laughter. _Something's dislocated. No time to_ _diagnose..._ Her vision swims, foiling her attempts to focus on the opponent before her. But inbetween the double images, the blurry spots, the ringing-  
  
She sees it.  
  
_...What in the world? That Rhyperior..._  
  
It raises its chin, staring at her with open hostility. _  
  
__It's surrounded by a strange black aura!  
  
_She quickly kips up, surveying the battlefield. Magmortar's left arm is injured, and it can't use it. From its stance, it seems it's not used to using its right arm. That should mean its attacks are far less accurate. Behind it is Bull, and in front is Rhyperior, nearly swallowing the room in the black aura it's emitting. At her side is Inteleon: winded, but able. And at the side of the room is Scizor, its carapace scraped and dented more than it's ever been before.  
  
Dire... _But not dire enough._  
"I have to hand it to you... This is the toughest fight a bounty has given me." She scans the room one last time. "Certainly deserving of the ' _dead or alive_ ' in your bounty." He simply smirks once more.  
  
"You run your mouth a lot for someone in mortal danger."  
  
"Enough bark. Bite me already." The grin disappears from his face, and Rhyperior immediately goes on the offensive again, lunging with another Drill Run attack, scoring a gap in the ground as it goes. The attack is stopped once more by a shot of ironsilk still connected to Scizor's pincers; a sharp pull and the beast is forced to stumble backwards. Magmortar levitates several rocks and pieces of furniture using Psychic, and flings them at her, but-- "Scale Shot!" they are shot down all the same, by a wave of artificial dragon scales hidden under Inteleon's wing-fins.  
  
"If your hotshot moves a muscle again, Inteleon snipes it. And it has never missed a shot in its life." A drop of water gleams threateningly on its finger, as Magmortar recoils nervously. Unconcerned, Bull spurs his beast againt Scizor again; the aura on its arm suddenly intensifies, and it throws a haymaker. Scizor ducks under it nimbly, then catches the arm with one pincer and uses the other arm to deliver several rapid-fire Bullet Punches, scattering a bit of string all over its body with each blow. It quickly breaks out of the grapple, but where you'd expect it to back off to gain space, it instead surges further forward, taking territory with no concern for its own, cracked midsection.  
  
_How do you take this thing down?_ It launches another attack, which Scizor can only barely dodge, propelling itself by attaching ironsilk to the ceiling and reeling in. _It's stronger, but that's not the hard thing; it doesn't get mad, so you can't provoke it._ Scizor drops down, delivering a cross-armed strike and spreading silk all over its target. It is slowed, but not enough to be deterred from another bullrush. _It doesn't hesitate. It has zero strategic sense, but since it obeys Bull, it doesn't need any. And it doesn't feel pain.  
  
...It doesn't feel pain.  
  
_"Break it off with Flash Cannon!" Scizor's pincer opens, and a thin beam of energy pierces the drill the beast produces from the hole in its palm. It is destroyed to bits, though another one comes out soon after. "Again!" The second one is treated similarly, and she scans Bull's face for a reaction. Seeing none, she whispers something to Inteleon. She steps back and shouts, "Just slow it down with your web!" String goes all over the room, connected from wall to ceiling, ceiling to floor, wall to floor to ceiling, the silk gleaming mysteriously. Rhyperior plunges through one and another, bulldozing the ground on its way to hit the retreating insect. It finally manages it, sending it crashing into a wall.  
  
" _Finally._ Finish it with Horn Drill." Its horn spins ferociously, and it lurches forward... and falls to one knee.  
  
And yet it tries to get up. "...Now what is this?"  
  
"Water Pledge." Bull glances at her irately... And realization dawns on his face.  
  
Each silk is covered in drops of water, infused with the energy of a proper Move. "That's why it..."  
  
"Finish it off." Scizor produces a huge gout of ironsilk from its pincer, and it quickly shapes into something resembling a sawblade. With a swing, the blade begins to spin and slams into the black beast's horn, splitting it down the middle and into a hundred pieces; the web bursts and binds it to the ground. Not that it's all that necessary, seeing as it's already passed out. The aura has faded.  
  
Grinding his teeth again, this time in panic, Bull points Magmortar at Vermillion--but she stands behind Inteleon. "You and I both know that's not going to work." A hundred scenarios run through his head, trying to figure out a way out of this. And by the time he comes back to reality, he's already covered in web he can't break out of.  
  
That morning, the Enforcers come to the station to find a cueball and his Pokéballs bound tightly in silk, unconscious, contact information pinned to his head with an ordinary sticky note. And that afternoon, Vermillion wakes up in her own bed, somewhere underground, checking her PokéNav to find that she's recieved the reward. "Oi. We've got all our necessities covered for a month."  
  
She flinches, momentarily forgetting her other arm is wrapped up in a cast. The woman at the PC, wearing headphones with two cords, simply sighs. "Well, that's good to hear. But you made a ruckus. I've been up for a while doing damage control." One cord is plugged into the PC. The other is held in the beak of a Xatu, like a crocodile clip, as it stands perfectly still.  
  
"I figured. You don't get fireworks like that at midnight without someone asking questions." She scribbles another tally in a notepad with a pencil, then gets up.  
  
"Just... Take it easy for a bit. The other bounties have already been... either claimed or removed, and I can't find which one it is." She runs a hand through her nice, silky hair, suddenly painfully aware of this very same nervous tick.  
  
"Mm? Do you suspect foul play?"  
  
"No. But you know me."  
  
"Enough to put a ring on you, yeah." Vermillion fishes some cream puffs and a glass of berry juice out of the fridge; with her arm like this, she could not possibly fix up anything better for breakfast. "Just promise me you'll take a break from listening to your favourite 'radio station' in a bit and spend some time with me."  
  
"Fine. I'm getting a headache anyway."


End file.
